As soon as my feet touched the ground, I cast a quick glance backward and spotted Saemi, who seemed to have noticed me. A smile lit up her face, and the small tears that threatened to fall from her eyes vanished quickly, as if they had never existed.

"Makoto!"

Saemi shouted, maintaining a smile on her face. For now, I decided to focus on the enemies. Turning forward, I gathered magical power in my hand, forming a small black ball. When thrown to the ground, the black ball transformed into several spikes that pierced the monsters attacking Saemi's barrier and others trying to approach.

"Glacial Mist"

As soon as I uttered these words, a white mist began to form, completely enveloping the area. When it came into contact with the monsters, they gradually turned into ice statues. One by one, the monsters perished, being shattered, and the survivors showed reluctance to continue the attack. Although I hoped they would retreat, I remained vigilant.

I was prepared in case they persisted with their attacks. At this point, I had already reinforced Saemi's barrier with Shade's power, so I was no longer as concerned about her. At least, I knew the barrier would not break even if all these monsters joined forces.

And, as I expected, the monsters slowly retreated when they realized they couldn't catch us. I was truly relieved that these creatures had instincts; otherwise, they would continue attacking without caring about the consequences.

Releasing a brief sigh, I turned to find Saemi, but before I could react, I was enveloped in a warm embrace. She was radiant, and I comforted her by stroking her head. With her beautiful eyes fixed on me, Saemi spoke.

"I was sure you would come"

Saemi said, sounding proud of her words. Even though the previous situation was scary, she seemed much calmer than I imagined she would be. I mean, from a broader perspective, anyone would be scared if they ended up in that situation.

"You're quite calm; I thought you'd be scared"

Hearing my words, Saemi let out a small laugh and tightened the embrace even more. While we were in it, I got distracted for a moment and didn't notice when Saemi grabbed my face and brought her lips close to mine. After we separated, she showed a wide smile on her face.

"I knew you would come, so there was no reason to be afraid... but still... you took your time"

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Hearing Saemi's words, I could only put a sorry smile on my face, tilting my head to the side. Immediately afterward, I scratched my neck.

"It's okay, I'm sorry about that. I wasn't exactly following a priority order because I thought that might make the search take longer than usual"

After saying that, I directed my gaze to Saemi once again and, this time, smiled confidently, joining in the small banter.

"But I made it in time, didn't I?"

Upon hearing my words, Saemi smiled and hugged me tightly, looking incredibly happy.

"I really love you, a lot, a lot, a lot"

After this brief exchange, Saemi and I headed back towards the cave. On the way, I explained to her the current situation we were in. Saemi had already noticed that we were inside the dungeon, although initially she was confused because the "inside" looked exactly like the "outside" I understood that feeling well.

"Makoto, Saemi, welcome back"

As soon as we returned, Aoi greeted us with a warm smile. After checking Saemi's condition, she turned her attention to me, examining me as well. In fact, Aoi did this quite often. Not that I was really going to get hurt, but it was reassuring to see her concern so evident.

"My king, can I talk to you for a second?"

Meanwhile, Shade approached me, requesting permission to talk. She seemed to have something important to report, so I nodded. While Saemi interacted with the other girls, I listened attentively to Shade's words.

"I've been sensing a strong concentration of mana coming from the forest for some time now, as if something is sucking the mana from the air"

Upon hearing Shade's words, I was momentarily confused. It was clear that this must be the work of a monster, perhaps even the dungeon boss. However, what kind of monster would feed on mana? Even with my experience in games and the variety of monsters I had seen, none of them fit this description.

"Alright, thank you for letting me know"

As I uttered these words, Shade smiled before disappearing again. While reflecting on the situation, it occurred to me that if the monster absorbed mana, casting spells against it would be ineffective, as it would simply consume the magical energy.

At that moment, I recalled the power I gained from Baji. Specifically, although I used this power for a short time, it didn't seem to rely on mana but rather on the body itself as fuel. It was something like, the stronger someone's natural strength, the more powerful they would be when using aura manipulation. However, I realized that I still needed to test this theory.

Afterwards, I shared with the girls the information Shade gave me. Each of them reacted differently, but we reached a consensus that if the monster was indeed powerful, I would confront it directly, while they would offer as much support as possible before depleting their mana reserves.

Ana would probably have the heaviest workload, using ice summons with her power to assist me in the fight. Although this consumed a lot of her magical power, she argued that it would be more efficient to cause as much damage as possible before depleting her mana reserve.

With these thoughts, we fell asleep, preparing for the battle that would unfold the next day. Upon opening my eyes again, I was greeted by the shy rays of sun penetrating the cave through the cracks in the ceiling. As everyone woke up, we headed to the location where Shade had detected the mana concentration.

There, I faced some monsters and absorbed their essences. I wasn't sure if I would use these powers against the boss, considering its ability to drain mana, but I preferred to be cautious.